QUEBEC DOUBLE MURDER-SUICIDE: Quebec provincial police are calling the deaths of Jocelyn Marcoux and his children, Lindsay Brillant-Marcoux, 13, and Karen Brillant-Marcoux, 11, a possible murder-suicide after their bodies were found inside a burned-out garage in Warwick, Quebec. The police said autopsies needed to be done to officially identify the remains and determine the cause of death.

It appears a custody battle was at the heart of the tragedy. In the hours leading up to the violent blaze, Marcoux published a lengthy diatribe on his Facebook page denouncing a court decision allowing his ex-wife to have partial custody of the children.

Marcoux noted he had full custody of the children, and one neighbour said the kids had been there a little more than a year. However, the lawyer representing the ex-wife in the case said no decision had been made in the case. He said the couple were to appear in Quebec Superior Court on Tuesday to discuss custody and alimony issues.

In his letter, typed in French, Marcoux said fathers must take justice into their own hands because they can’t get it from the court. He feared he would lose custody of the children. “For all the fathers out there, it’s official,” the letter reads. “If you don’t get justice yourself, you’ll never have it.” The letter was posted early Tuesday on Facebook, not long before police received a call at 3 a.m. for a house fire in Warwick, about two hours of northeast of Montreal. Source

Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families of the victims. This could have been avoided. There’s no excuse for taking the lives of one’s children. Divorce proceedings and ensuing custody cases are never easy. Still, it didn’t have to get to this. Karen Brillant-Marcoux and her brother Lindsay Brillant-Marcoux didn’t have to die.